Scientists Believe They Have Discovered A New Whale Species Off Baja California's Coast
BAJA CALIFORNIA (CBSLA) — Researchers say they believe they have discovered a previously unknown species of whale near the coast of Baja California.
Scientists with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on a vessel named the Martin Sheen say they saw three beaked whales surfacing about 100 miles north of Mexico's San Benito Islands, a group of three remote islands about 300 miles from the U.S. border.
"We saw something new. Something that was not expected in this area, something that doesn't match, either visually or acoustically, anything that is known to exist," one of the expedition's leaders, Dr. Jay Barlow, said in a statement. "It just sends chills up and down my spine when I think that we might have accomplished what most people would say was truly impossible – finding a large mammal that exists on this earth that is totally unknown to science."
The expedition was in those waters to study the beaked whales in the area, particularly one associated with an unidentified acoustic signal known as BW43 that was recorded in 2018. It may have come from a Perrin's beaked whale, but there have been no confirmed live sightings of the species, and its population size and geographic range are not known, according to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
The creatures the scientists saw on this latest expedition was a beaked whale, but because each species emits a distinct acoustic echolocation signal that can be reliably identified, the Sea Shepherd's scientists say they were not the source of BW43 and also do not match the description of a Perrin's beaked whale.
Scientists and the crew documented the whale with photos, video recordings and a specialized underwater microphone to record their acoustic signals. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says they are confident the documentation will, along with an environmental genetic sampling, will prove the existence of a new species definitively.
